Cheveley House (to the right of the clock tower) in about 1912, when it would have been the surgery of Dr Ernest Fyson – Bury Road is on the left of the picture (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 1).
Cheveley House no longer exists; it stood roughly where the Majestic Wine Warehouse is now (see the building to the right of the clock tower in the picture on the right, and marked on the 1885 map below – before the clock tower existed). Interestingly, Cheveley House appears to be on the 1768 map of Newmarket too, so seems to have been quite an old building? It would fit very well for Woodward Mudd’s residence and surgery as described in 1818, but no solid evidence for that has yet emerged (see the page on Woodward Mudd for details). However, it was definitely the location of Ernest Last Fyson’s practice from shortly after the 1885 map was drawn until his death in 1917, so served as a surgery in Newmarket for about 30 years (and perhaps also from 1813-1818 if Woodward Mudd had been there earlier).
The 1881 census shows Ernest Last Fyson still living with his uncle Robert Fyson at their surgery on the end of the High Street (see an image on the page about Ernest Fyson), and it’s not entirely clear from that census who was in Cheveley House. In 1885 Ernest appears still to have been living with his uncle, according to a trade directory from that year. The earliest evidence of Ernest Fyson at Cheveley House comes from an 1888 trade directory. He doesn’t mention the house in the Medical Registers or Directories, but Charles Simpson his apparent assistant does, also in 1888. It would make sense that Ernest moved there in 1887/8, since Robert Fyson appears to have retired fully in 1887, continuing to live in the Fysons old house/surgery until his death in 1894 (see the page on Robert Fyson for details).
Cheveley House marked on the 1885 Town Plan of Newmarket (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 2).
The 1891 census shows Ernest Fyson living in Cheveley House alone, aside from three servants (again see an image on the page about Ernest Fyson). This was the year before he married his widowed cousin Frances de Stuteville Isaacson, both in their 40s. She was the daughter his uncle and former business partner Robert Fyson. The 1901 census shows them together at Cheveley House, along with three servants again. They had no children. Frances died in 1907, so the 1911 census shows Ernest again alone, as a widower aged 67, apparently still working, and with two servants at that stage. Finally Ernest died in 1917, at which stage Cheveley House ceased to be a surgery.
It’s not yet known what became of Cheveley House after 1917. It will be interesting to see who was living there on the 1921 census when it’s revealed in 2021, if the house still existed at that point – it’s not on the 1926 OS map of Newmarket, so must have been demolished by then. On that map there is no building at all, just some trees are shown (and presumably grass – see the page on Heath Cottage for a picture from 1938 with Cheveley House missing).
Another view of Cheveley House, with Heath Cottage up Bury Road visible on the far left – see the page on Heath Cottage for another photograph showing that building, after Cheveley House had gone (see below or click image for source and acknowledgements etc., ref. Image 3).
Some general events of interest recorded during the time of Cheveley House as a surgery include a flood in 1889, and gas street lighting being installed in 1899 (which Ernest Fyson offered to fund himself). The pictures above and on the right seem to show gas lights around the clock tower, but the one on the right also shows what looks like a smaller string of poles running down the passage in front of Cheveley House and elsewhere in the picture too. It’s not known whether these were a smaller form of gaslight, but they seem a bit thin for that. If anyone knows what they might be please make contact via the details in the footer below.
The other surgeries in Newmarket during the time that Cheveley House was a surgery were Lushington House (the Grays), Mentmore House (the Meads followed by Ernest Crompton, who moved that practice to Kingston House followed by Rutland House during Cheveley House’s time as a surgery), Cardigan Lodge (Walter Hutchinson succeeded by Sidney Winslow Woollett), and the practice of John Rowland Wright, succeeded by John Hansby Maund, which had various locations during that period, including Rous Villa, Brackley House and Grosvenor House.
Image 1: From Peter Norman’s Collection (cropped); image reproduced with kind permission of Peter Norman. [Note: we have not been able to access the back of this old postcard to ascertain the original publisher, but using the image here seems likely acceptable, especially given the card’s age. Please make contact using the details via the footer below if you know more, for example if further acknowledgements etc. are required.]
Image 2: Town Plan of Newmarket. Southampton: Ordnance Survey; 1885 (cropped); image © Crown Copyright 1885, reproduced with kind permission of old-maps.co.uk and the Ordnance Survey. [Note: click here for the specific map on their website.]
Image 3: From the Spanton Jarman Collection (cropped), image ©, reproduced with kind permission of the Bury St Edmunds Past and Present Society.
Note: see comments regarding images and copyright © etc. on the Usage &c. page as well.
1768: Cheveley house does appear to be on Chapman’s 1768 map of Newmarket. Reference: Online image from The British Library at www.flickr.com of Maps K.Top.8.74., ‘To The Right Honourable WILLIAM EARL of MARCH & RUGLEN, Baron Douglas of Nidpath, Lymn & Maner, Vice Admiral of Scotland, one of the Lords of his MAJESTYS [sic] Bed Chamber; Knight of the Most Ancient & Noble Order of the Thistle &c. &c. THIS PLAN OF NEWMARKET, IS HUMBLY INSCRIBED By his Lordship’s Most Humble & Obedient Servant I. Chapman.’ (accessed March 2021).
1787: As with the map above, Cheveley house does appear to be on Chapman’s 1787 map of Newmarket. Reference: SRO(B)435, ‘Plan of the Town of Newmarket, surveyed by I. Chapman London: Printed for W Faden. Geogr. to the King Charing Cross March 31 1787’, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1821: Cheveley House appears to be on the 1821 enclosure map of Newmarket All Saints’ parish. Reference: FL609/13/12, Plan of the Parish of All Saints, Newmarket, in the County of Cambridge, 1821, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds). [Note: this would fit very well with the description of Woodward Mudd’s house and surgery in 1818.]
1881, 3rd/4th April: Ernest L. Fyson, aged 37, born in Exning, Suffolk, ‘surgeon in Gen Practice’, defined as a Partner, in the household of Robert Fyson, aged 74, also a ‘Surgeon in Gen Practice’ and born in Exning, together Robert Fyson’s, daughter Fanny M. (Ernest’s future wife, yet to be married to someone else first – see the pages on Robert Fyson, Ernest Last Fyson, and The Fysons), and three servants. They were all living in Newmarket St Mary’s parish on the High Street. Reference: The National Archives, 1881 census. [Note: see the page on Ernest Last Fyson for an image.], [Note also, this was the last house on the High Street at that time, three down from the Crown heading towards the clock tower (which was not built until 1887) – see the page on Robert Fyson for details.]
1885: Cheveley House is on the 1885 map of Newmarket. Reference: Map of Newmarket. Southampton: Ordnance Survey; 1886 (surveyed 1884), sheet 42.6. [Note: see image on the page about Robert Fyson, and image of the contemporary Town Plan above, on which it is named.], [Note also, see comments regarding the survey date on the 1926 map below.]
1885: ‘Fyson Robert, L.S.A., surgeon, High street’ and ‘Fyson Ernest, surgeon, High street’ listed in White’s Directory under Newmarket. Reference: White’s history, gazetteer and directory of Suffolk. Sheffield: White Wm; 1885, pg 516. [Note: ‘Gray Clement’, ‘Gray Frederick Clement’, ‘Mead Geo. Borwick’, ‘Mead Owen’, ‘Hutchinson William’ [sic], and ‘Wright John Rowland’ are listed separately.], [Note also, this appears to show Robert Fyson still in practice on the High Street, with Ernest not yet in Cheveley House, contrasting with the 1888 Kelly’s Directory entry below after Robert’s Medical Directory entry changed to ‘retired’ in 1887, see reference below.]
1887: ‘FYSON, ROBERT, Newmarket, Cambs (retired) – L.S.A. 1831; (Guy’s and St. Thos.’s); late Med. Off. Health Newmarket.’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1887. [Note: this is the first mention of him being retired; his entry remains unchanged from this point.], [Note also, see the page on Robert Fyson for more background details.]
1888: ‘Fyson, Ernest Last, surgeon, Cheveley house’ listed in Kelly’s directory. ‘Fyson Robert, Exeter road’ is listed in the private residents but not commercial section. Reference: Kelly’s directory of Cambridgeshire… London: Kelly & Co.; 1888, pg 116 (114-119 Newmarket section). [Note: Gray Clement Frederick, Gray Frederick Clement, Hutchinson Walter, Mead George Borwick, Mead George Owen and Wright John Rowland, are listed separately.], [Note also, Robert Fyson was still in the same house on the end of the High Street at this time, at its junction with Exeter Road, but interestingly here uses Exeter Road rather than High Street for his address.]
1888: ‘SIMPSON, CHAS. SHACKLETON, Cheveley House, Newmarket, Cambs – M.R.C.S. Eng. 1887; (Guy’s).’ Reference: The Medical Directory. London: Churchill; 1917. [Note: this was his first entry in The Medical Directory, remaining the same in 1889, but by 1890 he was in Brighton, where he was in 1891 too, and can be seen on the 1891 census there. Obviously he was an assistant to Ernest Fyson, likely in some sense replacing Robert Fyson – see the page on Ernest Fyson for further details.], [Note also, in the Medical Register his first entry was also for 1888 and ‘Cheveley house, Newmarket’, but his 1889 entry records an address in London, then it’s Brighton from 1890.]
1889, 27th May: It was reported at the Local Board of Health meeting that Dr Fyson’s premises had flooded, together with other houses in Upper Station Road due to a drainage problem in the area. Reference: The Bury and Norwich Post. Tuesday Jun 04 1889: 7. [Note: Upper Station Road is now known as Old Station Road.]
1891, 5th/6th April: Ernest L. Fyson, aged 47, born in Exning, Suffolk, ‘General Medical Practitioner’ living at Cheveley House (four households down from the Horse and Groom Inn – see 1901 census below), together with three servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1891 census. [Note: see the page on Ernest Last Fyson for an image.], [Note also, his wife to be, the widowed daughter of Robert Fyson, ‘Frances de S. Isaacson’, can be seen in the household of Robert Fyson, where Ernest was on the 1881 census above.]
1892, 2nd June: Ernest Last Fyson, aged 48, bachelor surgeon of All Saints’ Newmarket (father William deceased) married Frances Maria Isaacson, aged 42, widow, of St Mary’s Newmarket (father Robert Fyson, surgeon), St Mary’s church, Newmarket. Reference: J552/10, microfilm of Newmarket St Mary’s parish register, (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1899, 4th October: A Newmarket Urban District Council meeting was reported in the paper, and under ‘LIGHTING MATTERS’ it said, ‘The committee having received the draft contract with the Gas Company, for public lighting, as altered by the company, it was resolved to recommend that the same be approved.- Mr FYSON, surgeon, conveyed his thanks to the Council for having resolved to erect a public lantern in his passage, and he had inti-mated his intention of paying the cost thereof himself.’ Reference: Cambridge Daily News. Wednesday Oct 4 1899: 4.
1901, 31st March / 1st April: Ernest L. Fyson, aged 57, born in Exning, Suffolk, ‘surgeon’ living in Upper Station Rd (now known as Old Station Rd), Newmarket, four households down from the Horse and Groom Inn (i.e. Cheveley House – see 1891 above and 1911 below), with his wife Frances M. Fyson and three servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1901 census.
1907, 14th February: Frances Maria Fyson of Newmarket All Saints’ buried, aged 56, ‘wife of Dr Fyson’, in Newmarket burial ground (i.e. the cemetery). Reference: EF506/2/10, Newmarket Burial Ground burial register 1906-1928 (=book 3), (Suffolk County Record Office, Bury St Edmunds).
1907, 16th February: ‘DEATH AND FUNERAL OF MRS. FYSON.– We record with deep regret the death of Mrs. Fyson, who passed away at Cheveley House, Newmarket, on Monday last.’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Feb 16 1907: 5. [Note: see The Fysons for more detail.]
1911, 2nd/3rd April: Ernest L. Fyson, aged 67, born in Exning, Suffolk, ‘surgeon’ and widower, living in Cheveley House, Newmarket, together with two servants. Reference: The National Archives, 1911 census.
1916: ‘Fyson, Ernest Last L.R.C.P.Edin., M.R.C.S.Eng., L.S.A.Lond. surgeon, Cheveley house’ listed in Kelly’s directory. Reference: Kelly’s directory of the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk… . London: Kelly’s Directories Ltd.; 1916, pg 194 (189-197 Newmarket section). [Note: Crompton Ernest, Gray Clement Frederick, Gray Gilbert Clement, Gray Norman, Maund John Hansby and Woollett Sidney Winslow are listed separately.]
1917, 24th February: Under a heading ‘Death of Dr. Fyson’ a report that included, ‘We record with much regret the death of Dr. Ernest Last Fyson, who passed away at his residence, Cheveley House, Newmarket… During his last illness he was attended by Dr. C. F. Gray (an old friend as well as a pro-fessional confrére), who also took charge of his practice for some months. / The deceased gentleman was a widower (his wife having died several years ago), and leaves no children.’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Feb 24 1917: 3. [Note: see the page on the Fysons for more details about the family from this report, and the page on Ernest Last Fyson for more on him], [Note also, his death is reported in the deaths section of the same paper on page 2.], [Note also, it seems likely therefore that the Fysons’ practice was absorbed into the Grays’ at this point, who likely had the capacity now being three, although a notice appeared in the paper the following week to say, ‘We are requested by the relatives of the late Dr. Fyson to state that throughout his illness Dr. Ernest Crompton was most assiduous in his attendance upon him, visiting him night and day.’ Reference: The Newmarket Journal. Saturday Mar 3 1917: 3. This appears to be an addition rather than correction? There’s nothing to suggest Ernest Crompton’s practice was expanding at this point. In fact he retired due to ill health a few years later and his practice also appears to cease at that point.]
1926: Cheveley House is not on the 1926 map of Newmarket. Reference: Map of Newmarket. Southampton: Ordnance Survey; 1926 (revised 1925), sheet 42.6. [Note: interestingly, this map says that the original survey was done in 1883, but the 1885 map above says 1884?]
Shops History Newmarket. http://www.newmarketshops.info/index.html. [Note: newmarketshops.info has been supplied with information regarding the medical history of Newmarket by the author of talkingdust.net since August 2013 (see footnotes on some of the pages). Both websites continue to be developed, and in this sense are mutually symbiotic.], [Note also, at the time of writing (February 2018) this website did not have a page on Cheveley House, but did have a very helpful red square on the Newmarket map indicating exactly where it was – it looks like a page might be coming in due course, but had not appeared by the time of launch.]
The Medical Directory. London: Churchill. [Note: this publication has been known by various titles over the years. Initially it just covered London, but from 1847 it had a wider remit, being variously known as the London and Provincial Medical Directory, The Medical Directories, The Medical Directory, etc., essentially the same work with minor variations and developments. It is usually referred to as The Medical Directory (as opposed to The Medical Register), so that is how it’s consistently referred to on talkingdust.net.]
The Medical Register. London: General Medical Council; 1859ff. [Note, Ernest Fyson does not give his house name in the Medical Register, but Charles Simpson did in 1888 – see notes on the 1888 Medical Directory entry above.]
Note: For published material referenced on this website see the ‘Acknowledgements for resources of published material’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page. The sources used for original unpublished documents are noted after each individual reference. Any census records are referenced directly to The National Archives, since images of these are so ubiquitous on microfilm and as digital images that they almost function like published works. Census records are covered by the ‘Open Government Licence’ as should be other such public records (see the ‘Copyright and related issues’ section on the ‘Usage &c.’ page for which references constitute public records, and any other copyright issues more generally such as fair dealing/use etc.).